Constant Beta

Storytelling in 6-words

Of late, I've been enamored with the concept of storytelling.....What follows is just a stream of consciouness that might not make much sense!

As a writer and a wordsmith .... I think words speak most powerfully to me. I think the best in words and I relay the best in words. Today I was surfing the net and remembered to check out my friend's online magazine SMITH mag (which I check periodically) SMITH mag has taken the idea of 6-word memoirs to an entirely new level that is so heart-breaking and powerful to me.

See these 6-word stories yourself... made me think that a great story that can be told in 60,000 words can be told as effectively in 6. This is one of the most powerful new mediums I've encountered.... (ofcourse there is twittories - stories in 140 words...etc) But how awesome is this?

Being 'carried' away

I watched 'Sex and the City' last night with my close friends. The movie was bitter-sweet with a tight story-line and killer one-liners. But what took the toast was the experience of watching the movie... The audience, mostly women but a large number of men - oohing and aahing at the beginning, groaning at the bitter parts and clapping enthusiastically towards the very end.. was simply amazing to witness and be a part of. SATC is part of a New York women's collective memory - every girl imagines her and her friends having the kind of friendships portrayed in the sitcom with ofcourse, NYC as the backdrop. I highly recommend watching the movie, if not in New York with NY women, then most certainly with your closest friends : )

Manly women

I just watched the season premiere of Candace Bushnell's new TV Series, LipStick Jungle. This show revolves around the lives of a hollywood executive, a magazine publisher and a fashion designer. LipStick Jungle's storyline is eerily similar to Darren Star's Cashmere Mafia, which is about four friends - a magazine publisher, a senior executive at a cosmetics company, a banker and a chief operating officer of a hotel chain. (And if you read the above paragraph once again like I just did, I promise you won't be able tell which is which.)

Sex & The City earned it's place in contemporary culture for its bold exploration of sexuality and relationships in women's lives. So it is with far more interest that I watch the forementioned shows because one of them is created by the original writer for SATC and the other one, by its director.

Even in the nascent stages both Cashmere Mafia and LipStick Jungle have made it crystal clear that they are not just an urban, more relevant version of Carrie and her friends. The characters in this series are definitely have texture and are perhaps slightly closer to real life and deal with real life issues: managing kids, anniversaries, cheating husbands, joint finances and veritably, expensive closets. Sure enough, every now and then there's that dose of exuberance and  lavish show of wealth and plots that inextricably weave in and out of impossible, glamorous worlds. But that aside, I'm very interested in the socio-cultural examination shows like this will invite.

On two main perspectives:
1) Is there a cultural shift happening around us with the status-quo between the genders balancing itself out? I am not making a statement, merely asking. I read in Fast Company last month that Sci-Fi channel has more female viewers than men and now that a woman is at the helm of the channel, she is trying hard to shift the perception of Sci-Fi channel from it's current, star-trekky/manly image to a fantasy/softer image so that it caters to the fairer gender. To me, that is a clear single that contexts that were previously used to separate and differentiate cultural properties based on gender are blurring.

2) The other perspective - (which is a rather unrelated one) is does social media deserve all the credit it is getting? I just returned from a fashion show and there was this buzz  around me by the bloggers in attendance about how their channels were the conduit of opening up fashion and making it more transparent. I see all the coverage on the various fashion blog networks and the more traditional digital media properties and I cannot help but ask myself: what exactly is different? and where exactly are the bloggers providing more value? The more enterprising bloggers enter the fashion shows with photographers and videographers in tow and at the end of the day what you have is: a 100 similar looking videos, a 100 similar sounding interviews and a 100 exact same photographs - all from different sources.

Yes - there are those giddy show reviews and 'behind-the-scene' snippets that presumably are enough to 'open the world' and make it more transparent. I beg to differ- where is the value?

Ever since SATC aired, without a doubt it also began a slow but certain fashion awakening.
When the show ended, culture mavens and smart story-tellers realized the void the show's end had created The void was not just an empty slot on HBO, but also the window via which women could regularly breathe in the fashionable air for one hour every week. In the last two years alone, TV shows like 'American's Next Top Model," "Top Designer," Top Hairstylist,", & 'Ugly Betty," have emerged quietly out of the woodwork to become a force to reckon with.
In my humble opinion, these shows do a far better job of making the world of fashion more transparent than bloggers do. Perhaps not accessible - but I'm not sure how blogs do that either.
Yes- most of the TV shows above are reality shows, but aren't blogs reality in writing anyways?

Something to think about.

Connecting the dots

I'm reading a book called, "Pathfinders - A global history of exploration."  It attempts to trace the history of mankind. In it's own words,

"This book is about encounters - encounters between cultures- and the outreach of ambition, imagination, efforts and innovations that made them possible."

So last night, as I was reading about the divergence and convergence of cultures traced through DNA in this book-- Nightline, incidentally played a short feature on how genes can help you discover your ancestry.

The feature is heavily based on the philosophy and efforts on one particular USA based company called Sorenson Genomics. Sorenson has collected about 100,000 samples of DNA from 172 countries over the world and is building an extensive database that will help people trace their genetic lineage.

"I think the hypothesis was that if he could get any two people in a room, and through this database show them how they were related and where they came from and how they belonged … that this would change the way they would feel about each other. That instead of animosity perhaps they would feel a connection and that would lead to a more peaceful environment," David said.

I am obviously very interested. My grandparents are from Karachi, Pakistan - what then used to be India. They fled to Bombay, India around 1947 and have since dug their roots there. With the death of my grandparents, it felt like a part of my family history was stubbed right there. Oral history tends to get lost over generations and all that is left is curiosity.

Sorenson Genomics have created DNA kits available for $150 -- they use their existing (and ever increasing) database to help you connect your dots. Yesterday on Nightline, Martin Bashir of Indian descent learned that his ancestors were Africans, Rajputs from Rajasthan and Brahmins from Uttar Pradesh.
Another DNA-tester who was adopted and had no idea about his background was able to trace his ancestry to Turkey.

Digital advances are moving us in an entirely uncharted territory. I just rekindled old connections today on Facebook using Friend Finder and I joined an Indian youth social network on ning to connect with other young Indians -- is the next evolution finding people with the exact same DNA as me who could be my long-lost, distant cousins ? It is a real possibility.

Homeless Man Brand

WSJ has a great article yesterday about the fashionable re-branding of the 'Homeless' brand. A bunch of Beverly Hills kids created a fashion label inspired by a West L.A homeless dude who has been nicknamed "The Crazy Robertson."

The clothing brand is sold in high-end boutiques like Kitson with the Crazy Robertson hoodies selling for as much as $98. John Jermyn aka Crazy Robertson gets 5% of net profits although he  refused to accept cash and instead asked to be paid in food, liquer and paper for his art projects.

I'm not sure where I stand on this particular brand building endeavor. The entrepreneurial kids also set up a MySpace page complete with videos of Jermyn saying, "My name is John Jermyn. Welcome to my myspace.com website."

The whole venture strikes me as funny. But it is fantastic microscopic vignette of the various forms boredom takes and the various solutions we come up with to continue to keep ourselves fascinated.

Cultural megalomania

Facebook has become a hot topic of discussion and scholarly study. Since facebook applications platform opened up, there are about 5000+ applications only with no real monetization channels. I have expressed my views before about the facebook applications -- but there's an interesting social awareness that is surfacing in this sphere: almost a sort of cultural megalomania.

People are taking pride in sharing their 'bookshevles," movie interests, virtual gifts, traveled cities and causes. Essentially, all applications that allow them to display their 'cultural worth' or 'cultural currency." I have been guilty of this as well -- having toyed around with each of these applications and then removed them because I got lazy of updating my 'cultural hall of fame' or simply realized that others had more fuller maps and more gifts and more drinks from their friends and that I would just look lame with such a meagre supply of all of the above. It's interesting to me that there is a visual metaphor on facebook for all kinds of cultural behavior people engage in -- and that people are taking pride in & engaging in that sort of cultural bragging where they think of those graphics as trophies and reflections of who they are and what their online worth is.

It is also, a very strong tool for people to control and sometimes manipulate exactly what their online identity will be. I am hard-pressed to say this is new to facebook. It probably started when we first spent hours trying to pick the right email handle, the right icq name, the right AIM name, the right msn name....The handle reflects our personality and it a strong representation of our physical self into a virtual world. Online diaries, livejournals and blogs allowed to portray our virtual handle in the real world -- and supplement it with constant data and feed to promote it, build it further and even, live up to it.

Facebook applications and facebook itself -- by allowing visual and graphical representations of more than one aspect of our intelligent/ the culturally assimilated self, as taken this cultural megalomania to a whole new level.

And that's the extend of thought I've given this right now --
what about you?

American - Nacirema

Ironically enough, I left India on 15th August -- it's independence day. This year, I almost forgot to celebrate my sixth anniverary and my love affair with America. I've been thinking a lot about my place here, my place back in India and whether it is fair to belong to any one place after six years of nomadic experiences. I was having this conversation with Kim, my dear friend and colleague, a few days ago on our way back from work.

I've been thinking this for a while you know. Why I have this strong desire to defend America? Why so many of us claim to miss home (whatever that country is..) but never enough to want to return home? Why friends and family not in America are the first to lambast on how the country has no culture, no values?
I've been thinking about this and I think I know the answer to this.

We come here to be ourself. Stripped off all the layers ladled upon us by our cultures (in this case, my Indian upbringing) we come here to get to know ourselves. I can be a journalist here, I can be an ad-planner here, I can dream of writing songs for Walt Disney- heck, I could be a custodian if that's what I wanted. I am allowed to be a misfit, allowed to stay in touch with only the relatives I truly cared about, could fall in love with anyone I wanted and build an uncomplicated, interference-less life with them. And if I don't like someone or something, I could say - Fuck you. THAT. IS. FREEDOM. Being able to say fuck you.

What outsiders don't understand is that America's cultural tapestry has been created by not one, but many histories. Our stories are told by not one, but many voices. And our independence day is celebrated by not one, but many nationalities. And that's saying something. (Where else have you seen Punjabis, Koreans, Chinese come together to celerbate any nation's indepdence day?)

As much pride as I take in the fact that I am an Indian -- I take in being an American. And yes, I will have my passpost soon enough to validate it 110%.

Culture or commerce?

I have been unable to devote any real time to publishing my thoughts here since the last few months. Work, among other things, has certainly kept me busy and mind-numbed. I've been thinking a lot about my home in India as well. So I wanted to take some time today to spill these various bits and pieces floating around in my head.

I grew up in a lovely row-house where my grandparents first found shelter after escaping the India-Pakistan separation in the 1947. It's a tiny house, very middle-class by most Bombay standards. If you've been to an Indian middle-class household, you will know that the concept of personal space, doesn't really exisit. My sister and I shared a bunk bed until I was 12-13 -- we moved on beyond bunk beds but they were still, the fold-able kinds. The kinds that turned into a sofa during the day. Space was precious. I didn't have my own room until after I graduated college. And it was no bother. Thats what I was used to.

Anyways, going back to the house I grew up in....
In the six years since I've made another home in America, the real-estate around my humble town has suddenly shot up through the sky. A five-star hotel, a major express highway, a growing industry --- appeared (what feels like) overnight. My home and those familiar surrondings of 17 years felt a little strange with each visit. And since the last 2 years or so the little row-houses have become a point of interest for builders. They want to build shiny new 'towers' for the row-house residents - more space, a hike in the real estate value and ofcourse, the added privilege that comes with belonging to a high-rise.

Now well understanding the polticking and bureaucracy -- I do not know if the row-houses will ever be torn down in lieu of the promised paradise. But what I do know and what I have been wistfully observing since these discussions ensued is the hunger, the thirst, the determination these row-house families (including my parents) have to get 'towers' built. Every meeting with a new builder sparkles with hope and possibilities and everytime they are dashed, someone walks in with a new lead, a new direction....a new contact.
These are people who once resisted change and held on to their guts. Now, they fight, they scramble and they try to win, for that one leg up the social ladder.

It is a natural state of being, I know. And there are rationalizations behind this once instance as well. But the way I look at it -- it is clear in my eyes. The Indian middle-class, are not satisfied with staying exactly there. As an outsider who was once an intimate insider, I watch this energy and this drive with fascination, with eyes wide open. Its like my countrymen, are entering their youth. Vital, pulsating and not willing to take no for an answer anymore.

The definitive example that....

lies on the intersection of culture and commerce. (and how!)

Ofcourse I pre-ordered. But something tells me, I will be rushing to the Walnut Street B&N at midnight to buy a copy....

Swap or sell?

Yesterday I dropped in at the student exhibition at University of the Arts. A bunch of book-making students had their wares for display and for sale. A particularly engaging letter-press card set by a female student caught my eye and I asked her if she owned her own business. She shrugged and as though the idea was totally alien to her, said, ' I'm still in school. I'm a junior." The quality and sophistication of her work suggested otherwise or maybe I was just feeling so awed by the creative energy in the room and the intellectual breadth of these students, that I was unable to differentiate between professional and student work.

As I looked through other student's displays, my ears caught a lingering piece of conversation the junior was having with her next-table neighbor. It went something like this,

Next Door neighbour: so did you sell anything?

Junior female: A little... but I made tons of REALLLY COOOOOOL swaps.

Next door neighbour: Yes!! Swaps are wayy coooler.

I was sort of bemused to hear this. In such a creatively charged atmosphere -- there was little to none importance given to the monetary aspect of the product. What got these students more excited were the swaps they made with one another. A poster in exchange for a set of cards -- or a letterpressed book in exchange for a framed photograph. The swapstories go on.

I wondered why 'swaps' were cooler than 'being paid' for your work. And that's when it occured to me, swapping is such a strong two-way exchange of likeminded synergies. Whether it is a mutual relationship that two brands agree upon without exchanging any money, or two budding entrepreneurs swapping their skills to move further -- I found this phenomena way more exciting than a simple commerical transaction. When no money exchanges hands - parties are more involved in each other's works and the feeling of 'connected-ness' is definitely more pronounced.

In other news, University of the Arts has created The Center for Creative Economy to focus on driving creative growth in Philadephia and beyond. On May 22nd (Tuesday) the visionary economist and professor Richard Florida will be speaking at the University about his concept. I will be there and would love to meet up if any of you plan on being there.